Vuelta a San Juan blames hacked account for doping positive claim

Organisers of the Vuelta a San Juan said Monday that a hacked Twitter account was responsible for a message that went out over social media that claimed there was a positive anti-doping result from the January race and that more information would follow.

The tweet, which was posted on the race's official account after 9 p.m. local time in Argentina, read, "Attention soon information about a positive doping test in the last Vuleta a San Juan." It was quickly deleted, but not before several outlets had captured it in a screenshot.

Race organisers were quick to send out their own statement to Cyclingnews and other media outlets, claiming the account and been hacked and denying knowledge of any positive results from the January 21-28 race.

"The organization of the Vuelta a San Juan categorically denies what was published on our official Twitter account a few minutes ago," organisers wrote in the statements sent to media. "We confirm that today our account was hacked and we are working to secure our social networks.

"Under no circumstances do we confirm positive doping, since there are still no final results of the analysis made during the competition."

The World Anti-Doping Agency did not immediately respond to Cyclingnews' request for a comment about the situation or about which lab the results would have been sent to. The nearest WADA-accredited lab is in Brazil.

Argentinean road race champion Gonzalo Najar (Sindicato Empleados Públicos of San Juan) won the seven-stage UCI 2.1 race after taking the lead on the stage 5 Queen stage climb up Alto Colorado. Oscar Sevilla (Medellin-Inter) was second, followed by UAE Team Emirates' Filippo Ganna in third.